


To Be or Not To Be

by srfwrites



Series: Team Gotham [1]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), Batman (Comics)
Genre: Crossover, Gen, Renee is The Question
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-05
Updated: 2016-06-26
Packaged: 2018-07-12 08:12:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7093837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/srfwrites/pseuds/srfwrites
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During a brief period where Darhk and his Ghosts are laying low, rookie Gotham City Detective Renee Montoya arrives in Star City to pick up some files from Captain Lance. Later, a faceless woman saves Laurel from an unpleasant encounter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> This fic takes place during Arrow Season 4 after Sara left to join the Legends, but clearly before The Death That Shall Not Be Named. Currently, I plan to have this be the first fic in a three-part series (tentative title: "Team Gotham"). The second part is a bridge. The third takes place after The Death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big thanks to [Rivulet027](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Rivulet027) for beta-reading the first draft of this chapter. 
> 
> This draft was not beta-read.

“So, how’s about dinner tonight? My place. You’ve been so busy with your nighttime activities that I hardly get to see you anymore.” Quentin Lance asked as Laurel got up from her seat in front of his desk.

Laurel raised an eyebrow. “Nighttime activities?”

Quentin cringed. “Oh, God no. You know what I meant.”

Laurel laughed. “With Sara off doing who knows what, someone has to make the joke.”

 Quentin chuckled. “I hope she’s doing well…”

“I’m convinced she has nine lives.”

“Somehow, I don’t doubt that.”

“I’ll meet you at your place. Say nine o’ clock?”

Quentin smiled. “That sounds perfect.”

Laurel decided to set a reminder on her phone, as she finished she noticed the time. “I was here longer than I thought…” She reached for the door handle. “I’ve got to get back to my office. Love you Dad!”

Quentin watched as his daughter left, bumping into a female plainclothes officer with a badge around her neck that he only vaguely recognized. Laurel apologized to the other woman before leaving the bullpen and the officer made her way toward his office. She was about to knock on the slightly ajar door before he gestured for her to enter, it’s then that he recognized her badge as being from Gotham City.

“You must be Detective Montoya.” Quentin greeted as he got up and offered his hand, which the officer shook.

The woman nodded. “Yes sir. Detective Renee Montoya, Gotham PD. My Captain sent me to pick up some casefiles.”

“Sit, sit. I’ll brief you on the case.” He gestured to the chair in front of his desk that was most recently occupied by Laurel. Renee took a seat and he sat down before handing her a few files from a drawer and deciding to throw out something to break the ice. “Your Captain doesn’t believe in email?”

Renee shook her head. She understood that the Star City Captain meant well so she decided to answer as casually as she could while discussing her department’s corruption issues. “My Captain’s paranoid about security with this one, and I just made Detective so I’m stuck doing his legwork getting these in person.”

“This have anything to do with that corruption scandal?” Quentin decided to get straight to the point, unable to stem his curiosity.

“We’re just trying to keep things together.”

Later that night, just as the sun was setting, Laurel was leaving work and walking to her car which—thanks to a food cart and some stolen parking spaces—was parked a few blocks away. The immediate area around the DA’s building was considered safe. However, once at least a block away the safety level went downhill, especially at night. Thanks to her defense training along with her nighttime crime-fighting duties as Black Canary, Laurel wasn’t worried about not being able to protect herself. But, due to a slightly longer-than-usual workday and lack of caffeine, she was far more ready to go to bed.

Her car finally within eyesight, Laurel breathed a sigh of relief just before she was grabbed from behind and dragged into an alley. She fought back for a bit before the man gained the upper hand, almost knocking her unconscious.

“You guys didn’t think, huh?” The man said as he approached Laurel, who pulled herself into a sitting position against a wall.

It’s then that Laurel recognized one of the man’s tattoos and realized he was a member of the gang she prosecuted earlier that day. She couldn’t use anything within reach as a weapon, and she was still out of it so she decided hand-to-hand was out of the question. Instead, she moved to talk him down when a trashcan clattered at the end of the alley.

The gang member looked to the opening to see what caused the noise. Laurel followed his gaze to see the figure of a woman standing just far enough from light that her features were undiscernible.

The mystery woman walked closer, her gait displaying a measure of confidence. She then conveniently stopped in a patch of light, revealing an athletic looking woman wearing a custom blue leather jacket, slim-fit black leather pants, a blue fedora, and combat boots. For a second, Laurel assumed she was more out of it than she thought, as she could not make out the woman’s face. Then the woman began to speak, her voice oddly smooth and a bit distorted, and Laurel realized she wasn’t that out of it. The woman had no face.

“Hey buddy, I ask the questions. That cool with you?”

The gang member, in an effort to disguise how nervous he was, countered by pulling a gun on the faceless woman.

The new arrival let out a laugh before pulling a strange looking gun of her own and vaporizing the gang member with a single shot. She then made her way over to Laurel, who was nearly fully recovered and also fairly confused about the entire situation.

“You just killed a guy.” Laurel said, as she struggled to wrap her head around the entire situation.

The faceless woman offered Laurel a free hand and helped her off the ground. “He’s not dead. He’ll show up later near the police precinct. Don’t ask me how it works, I inherited this thing… I only know they don’t die unless I want them to.” She held up the strange gun for a visual. “You okay counselor?”

“I’ve never seen you around here. How do you know who I am?” Laurel asked, feeling a bit foolish when the faceless woman gestured toward her DA’s badge on the ground. Laurel picked up the badge and some other strewn belongings as the other woman found her purse.

“You sure you’re okay?” The faceless woman asked, handing Laurel her purse and watching as she put her things back inside.

“I’m fine.”

The faceless woman shrugged. “Alright.” She then put the vaporizing gun back into the holster on her thigh and pulled the trigger.

Laurel watched as the other woman disappeared in a cloud of vapor, leaving her standing alone in the alley.


	2. "I had this under control!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Laurel informs the team about her encounter with the faceless woman. Later, the faceless woman helps Speedy and Black Canary take down a gang of bank robbers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was not beta-read.

After the incident in the alley, Laurel headed straight to Team Arrow’s underground headquarters. Somebody had to know something about her mystery savior. Maybe one of the others heard something about a faceless woman in blue? Once she walked in, Thea – already dressed in her Speedy outfit, sans mask – immediately took note of her slightly disheveled appearance.

“What happened?” Thea asked, making her way over to Laurel, who casually waved her off before meeting the others in the main area by Felicity’s computer. “No, seriously. What happened to you?” She followed up, as she trailed Laurel across the room. The rest of the team turned their focus to Laurel.

“You know how today I prosecuted one of the leaders of that gang that’s been terrorizing The Glades?”

Thea and Felicity nodded.

“You won that case, didn’t you? Lyla was telling me about it.” Diggle asked, even though he already had a clue as to where the story was going.

Laurel nodded. “I won. Then one of the gang attacked me when I was walking to my car.” She examined a tear in the arm of her blazer, before taking it off and noticing the light bruise that was already beginning to form on her bicep.

Oliver handed Laurel an icepack, which she graciously accepted before applying it to the bruised area. “I see he got the upper hand.”

“Yeah. I was pulled into an alley. I got a few good hits in before he almost knocked me out. I was ready to try talking him down when –”

“I dug up some footage.” Felicity exclaimed, her focus on her computer.

The rest of the team turned their focus to the computer screen, which was displaying zoomed-in footage of the alley from a security camera across the street. They watched as the mystery woman entered the alley, then confronted and vaporized the gang member before helping Laurel to her feet.

When the mystery woman turned to grab Laurel’s purse, Diggle’s eyes went wide when he saw the distinct lack of facial features. Then, when the woman vaporized herself, he shook his head in disbelief. “What the hell I did just see?”

“I was there, and I don’t even know.” Laurel offered before an alert went off.

“Alright guys, we’ve got an armored car robbery on…” Felicity started before being cut off by another alert. “And now an after-hours bank robbery.”

“Laurel, I know you wanted to take the night off, but can you take Speedy and go to the bank? John and I will take the armored car.” Oliver asked as he grabbed his bow.

“Already ahead of you.” Laurel answered, grabbing her Black Canary suit from its case.

A few minutes later, Laurel – now fully dressed as Black Canary – and Thea arrived at the bank to find the faceless woman already there, ducked behind a table and taking fire from the robbers, which she was returning with a regular handgun. Laurel, sensing an opportunity, used the Canary Cry. As a result, most of the robbers dropped their weapons. The faceless woman cringed. Almost a split second later, the three women got to work taking down the men.

“I had this under control!” The faceless woman shouted as she punched one of the robbers across the face.

“Could’ve fooled me.” Black Canary responded, using her tonfa to knock another robber to the ground.

Speedy, who had just used her bow to knock a third robber unconscious, looked over at the others to see if they needed help. She watched for a second as they shouted back and forth at each other, unable to help noticing how they bickered like an old married couple. She moved to speak to the faceless woman, her curiosity was getting to her and she wanted to know how someone without a face managed to speak. “How do you even?” She stopped herself. “Actually, I don’t want to know.”

The faceless woman laughed in response. “Unlike you two, my mask conceals all my features.” Looking over to check on the Black Canary, she noticed a fourth robber about to take the other woman by surprise. She then used the momentum of the robber she was fighting as she grabbed the back of his head and drove her knee into his stomach, which caused him to fall to the ground in pain. “Gotta save the bird…” She muttered.

Black Canary took out her target just in time to see the faceless woman grab the robber that was about to attack her, wrench his arms behind his back cop-style, and slam his head into a countertop – knocking him out cold.

Speedy, having just come up with something to say, chimed in. “At least my mask isn’t super creepy…”

The women quickly made sure all of the robbers were disabled before they heard the approaching police sirens. The faceless woman looked toward the door and saw the faint flash of red and blue lights. “I have to get outta here.” She then pulled the trigger on her holstered vaporizing gun.

Speedy watched as the faceless woman disappeared in a cloud of vapor, causing Black Canary to pull her away and toward the back door, less than ten seconds before the police filed in.


End file.
